Guatemala’s National Monument – The Semuc Champey
This is a long story, I know. It’s more fun to tell it around the campfire or at a great brew pub someplace with friends you haven’t seen in a long time….or maybe people new you have just met while out traveling. But I hope you have a fun laugh, picturing some baby boomers getting out there and exploring—staying young. Almost the whole time I have traveled around Guatemala, we are usually the oldest people on the van….or in the back of a pick up truck holding on tight with 14 others….read on fellow travelers.
Why go to Semuc Champey? It’s a jungle, protected by the government as a national monument and is a real adventure to get to. There are caves to explore and monkey’s to see. It is beautiful, has a unique set of sandstone pools coming down the mountain with sparkling turquoise water so clear you can see the sandy bottom…and after a rugged hike to the top viewpoint, you will be glad to descend and dip into those invitingly cool waters. My adventure to the heart of Guatemala’s jungle nature preserve of Sumuc Champey started out in Antiqua, where we checked out several travel agents who offer tourist adventures. After talking to Maibley at Conexiones Turisticas, who seemed to listen to the desires of my group for nicer, more comfortable buses, she reassures us that she can do this and I book You can find travel offices in practically any of the larger towns in Guatemala, like San Pedro, Flores, Panajachel but know that they all say they can do whatever it is you’re asking for… but for us, the reality was that they all use the smaller coaches because the roads are not good enough for anything bigger on many of the roads in Guatemala . If you don’t like to ride in small spaces for long hours, I would warn you about booking this type of tour. Rent a car and driver instead if you have $100 extra. Oh, yes. And don’t book a package. All packages are with the 20-30 somethings in mind. I didn’t know better….I booked the package.
So, there we are, starting our adventure, getting picked up at our hotel in Panajachel on Lake Atitlan in a nice looking shuttle van…plenty of room it looks like. We all settle in, laughing and joking after our nice breakfast at the B&B. Then they keep stopping to pick up more and more people until we are packed in without a seat left including the jump seats that magically fold out to make a 4th seat on each row. The ride from Antiqua is 8-9 hours just to get to the jumping off town of Lanquin where you change vehicles for the hour long drive to your Semuc Chempay hotel. A word of warning: don’t sit in the front next to the driver unless you have a strong constitution…looking over the precipice of mountains or coming within inches of hitting people along the roadways makes for a nervous trip…and don’t sit in the far back if you are prone to car sickness, it’s quite bouncy back there. Try for a seat next to the window in the middle. I enjoyed the seat directly behind the driver the best.
Off we finally go into the mountains of Guatemala through small villages where we glimpse people going about their morning, carrying everything on their backs, from chickens to babies, bananas to bags of cement. After about 3 1/2 hours we stop for gas and a quick snack and potty break. Return to van and repeat. Finally we turn off onto a dirt road and the countryside gets more wild and jungley, the cement houses turn into shacks and people are still smiling and carrying on with their day. As we pull into Languin the sun is beginning to set. Our next ride, we’ve been told, has to be a 4 wheel drive to be able to get into Semuc Chempey jungle and our travel agent back in Antigua has assured us we will be sitting in a comfortable vehicle for the one hour journey to our hotel….we see a green army type truck go by with seats in the back and a canopy overhead (Greengos). Greengo’s Hostel has better transportation from Languin to their hotel but ours, the El Portal Hostel will give you a ride you will never forget!
We are ushered towards a 4×4 pickup truck and our bags are being tossed into the back. Huh??? “Get up” says the driver. There are no seats I say….”That’s right. It’ll be more comfortable if you stand up and hold on to the bars”…sure enough, the truck is outfitted with metal rods along the overhead edges and down the middle of the truck bed for you to hold on to. My friends and I look at each other, laughing. It definitely helps to have a sense of humor for adventures like these. Another 12 or 14 hop in with us (us 4 being the only over 6o crowd) we grab our bars for support and head off just as dusk sinks to darkness. Every now and again I get slapped in the face by the leaves hanging out into the road…it’s so dark I can’t really see what’s coming but I prefer being on the outside of the truck bed and not in the middle. Two girlfriends have managed to rearrange some of the bags and sit on the luggage platform. I am having a rather swell time bouncing along and bracing myself, feeling very like an Indiana Jones character and time goes quickly as we finally cross the bridge over the Cahabon River to arrive at our hotel’s front gate. The next day when I see in daylight, the bridge, it gives me a start. Even though it looks rickety my partner, Barry, assures me it is safe enough to return on!
Our cabin is located right next to the river with a nice porch looking out onto the bridge and the jungle beyond. Our rooms are comfortable, roomy and with private baths though the promised “hot” water is merely tepid. Because you are in a national reserve, the lights go out at 9pm. We have just enough time for a bite of dinner and settle in before it becomes pitch black. Having a flash light handy is necessary. Sweet, exhausted dreams are had by all….
Next morning we are up at the restaurant, finding out about our hike and cave trip. Since we bought the package it included a hike to the Semuc Champey pools, a tour of the Camba Caves and a float down the river. You can buy passes into the pools and Camba cave separately. If you hike then do the Camba Caves a different day because both are strenuous. A word of warning to us aging baby boomers….hike only if you have good knees and are in reasonable shape…otherwise choose to just stroll down the easy trail straight to the pools. They don’t tell you that when you book a “package! We are committed and so we put in our lunch order to have after our return from the pools and off we go walking up the road to the trail head. Looks good. Looks easy. There are 17 of us plus our guide. 6 of us are 60+ and the others are 20-35….you can imagine what happens when we veer off the easy path and start heading up the steep mountainside. They are long gone. We look at each other, look at the “trail” and give a “I hope we know what we’re doing” sigh. Our guide is trying to hurry us along but we give him a glare and he takes off to check on the “kids”. When he gets back to us we are stopped, resting and photographing some monkeys. “You gotta hurry up” he tells us. “You need to catch up!”. We do our best but it’s hard going….steep, muddy and hardly a path to hike on…. once in a while there is a wooden stairway, other times a rope to help pull yourself up. We figure we paid our money just like they did. It’s not our fault they only have one guide for all of us We want to enjoy our hike at our pace so we don’t let him hurry us and laugh with him about designing a hike for us los viejos. One girlfriend is wondering if she should have come along because of her knees but we had noooo idea what we were in for. Barry stays with her to help and my other girlfriend and I just go ahead…we are soon out of sight. It’s a fun hike for us because we have all spread out and are hiking at our own levels. Even though I couldn’t go at the pace I could go when I was 27 or 37, I’m glad I was in reasonable shape from going to the gym to make the hike doable without too much pain The other 60+ couple struggles along with bad knees, making for a slow climb for them too…now we don’t feel so bad as we’re not the only ones not at the top yet! And eventually we do reach the lookout where we are rewarded with stunning views to the turquoise pools below. Five minutes later our guide is ready to hurry us down but we stall, giving ourselves more rest time. Poor guy. The “kids” left 10 minutes ago, being bored waiting for us. Finally we are ready and start the steep decent. It is beautiful in the jungle. The temperature is a pleasant 22 (78F) in the speckled shade of the tall palms and jungle trees. I see house plants as big as cars. By the time we reach the bottom I am in heaven photographing the streams and foliage, taking my mind off my aching leg. My friends walk on ahead to put their belongings into the storage bins and jump into the pools. One of the package items is a trip down the valley pools where you slide/swim from pool to pool. We have decided we are done with the package adventure for now and opt to just stay put in the upper pools while the others take off with the guide. An hour later they are back and we all dry off; get our gear and start the walk back. Fifteen minutes later we are at the trail head…if only we had known. you can just skip the mountain hike and go straight to the pools….so don’t miss out on the Semuc Champey pools if you are not a mountain goat. It’s an easy walk if you only know to ask!
Back at the hotel we sit down to our lunch and rest up for the Camba cave tour. Groan. These packages make you do it all in one day. Everyone in my group is so tired, they decided a nap is on their itinerary but I just have to go check it out. I head out with the other kids to meet up out front and are told to grab an inner tube. Huh? Cheeze. The float down the river will not be in a raft….why am I not surprised? We walk across the bridge and up a trail where we leave our tubes. Then a short, steep hike up another trail and we arrive at the mouth of a cave, where we are given a candle which our guide lights as we start walking up the stream into the cave. At first it is only ankle deep. We reach a ledge where our guide jumps into a pool of water about 25 feet across. He grabs onto a rope that is stretched across the pool going off into the darkness and holding onto his candle he hauls himself through the pool using the rope, hand over hand. Okay I say….I’m next in line and off I go. I lift my feet straight out in front of me and somehow I can hold my candle and go hand over hand across the pool by rope to the other side. I’m feeling like Indiana Jeanne Jones. Our guide now lights a candle and puts it on the wall of the cave so we can see a bit better as we use the rope to pull ourselves out of the pool and on to another ledge. A couple of more pools and we come to a metal stairway that goes straight up 10 feet to the next ledge right next to a small waterfall. Those who are strong and brave enough can climb a rope up through the waterfall to the ledge above…or you can follow me up the ladder. This is the trickiest yet. The ledge at the top of the ladder is barely wide enough for me to climb up on and then you hold onto some ropes above your head to inch around the corner and across the rushing water. “Don’t step in that hole there” our guide says as he rushes by me. “I’ve got to go back and help the others. Stay here”. I see the couple from the hike and she is having problems getting off the ladder. I try to help by pulling her up as her husband pushes from behind. Yikes. It’s dark. I hold my candle out as we inch forward into the dark. I need to make enough room for the 15 others behind us. Yea. Our guide returns to the front and off we go pulling ourselves through another pool, walk the final ledge to the end… a cave within the cave where it’s deep enough to climb the wall and jump into the pool below…Surely someone will be brave enough to try it. I’m not disappointed. 2 climb up and jump in and then we are ready to return. Down the ladder and across the pool when our guide says he has a short cut and we turn left following a rush of water into a little chamber. I am still right behind him and he gets down on a ledge with the water rushing past. He tells me I am to sit on his knee, put my hands on the wall in these two places and push off. I will fall 6-8 feet to a cave below and after retrieving my candle from him I will turn right and wait for everyone else…ARE YOU CRAZY?? Nope, I say, backing up and telling those behind me I’m not doing it. The next girls gets the low down and she back out. Finally the two daredevils of the cave jump decide they will go. We don’t hear any yelling after they plunge. So a third one goes then another. Hummm….maybe it’s not so bad. I climb back into the slot and push off from his knee. Down I drop, loosing my hat as I come gasping up for air. There’s our guide reaching down with my candle but I can’t reach it….I try getting a foot hold onto the wall and push myself up, grab the candle and when I drop back down it almost goes out. I just manage to kick my legs hard enough to keep myself afloat and away from the cascading water then swim towards the light of the others’ candles. No one else is willing to take the plunge and the guide has to lead them to another couple of ladders where they are able to meet up with us. There is a lot of laughter and hugs as we round the next bend and see the light of the cave entrance and know we are done.
As we trudge tiredly down the trail towards the river where we left our tubes, I can hear a few people saying they are too tired for the river float. I am feeling the same way. We get our tubes and walk down to the launch point on the river. As each person sits in their tube and pushes off they scream with the shock of the cold water. It is late afternoon. The sun will set in an hour. I feel the water and decide I’ve had enough thrills for the day. I’m ready for a hot shower and a rest before dinner. I’ll save this for another day, another trip. As I walk back across the bridge, watching the others float past, I think, “That was the most fun and thrilling thing I’ve ever done” and I will be sore for days!
Gypsey Jeanne's Travel Blog for Boomers 